'We Didn't Start the Fire' is running through my head as I make this list. I am tone deaf so you can decide for yourself if this works.
Blue Jays Lose, Blue Jays Win, Wedding, Wedding Reception, Wedding still to come, Stomach Flu, Hockey, Cottage, Stanley Cup on CBC, Shabbats with Family, Shabbat with Friends, Camp for Channah, Marineland, Anniversary, BBQ, 'Canadian Donuts', New Shoes, Broken down Erev Shabbat near Cornwall, Star Trek into Darkness, Man of Steel with D-Box, The Great and Powerful Oz, The Devil Wears Prada, Dave and Busters, Bowling, Mount Royal, Kiddush for friends who waited 14 years to adopt baby girl, Channah's insomnia is back again, JFK, Flight Delay, 'There's a Cow in My Soup', Trading tickets with Ticket Master, Tov Li again and again, Sushi Delight, Sheva Brochot, Pre-Sheva Brachot, Harbourfront, Schedule Juggling, Raising money, Brand new dryer waiting for my return home, Living with my parents, time with family and friends (including the Israeli ones), 2nd Still Standing Magazine Article, Slurpees, Free baby sitting, Chauffeur service, Science Centre and Oink Oink for Channah, lots of crafts, dollar store, Walmart, 2L bottles look huge, tons of new stuffed animal friends.
That is a brief summary of why I have been mostly tuning out the world over the last few weeks. The trip to Toronto has been a mass of worlds colliding. The past with the future as I continue to pick up the broken pieces and figure out which ones to take with me, which ones to keep in a safe place and which ones are not as significant as they seemed before I picked them up to examine them.
When I moved to Israel some of my life in Toronto became left in my passed. When Gabi died some walked back into my life and many more walked out. When Rachel died I had a flood of support from my new community and a lot from the old country. It was such a blur I can't say with any degree of certainty if an individual person didn't. The family in Toronto was flooded with even more support. While they were flooded with hundreds of condolence cards I received 4 or 5. It does not bother me in anyway how people choose to or not to show there grief. It is only to help understand what I am about to write.
On a number of times I have run into people that I know that I don't think I have heard from since Rachel's passing and possibly much, much longer. I am sure it is 1000 times more awkward for them as it is or me. We exchange greetings and sometimes even make small talk. I walk away with two questions on my head 1.Did they know about Rachel? 2. If they did, why didn't they say anything? (even in a round about way to let me decide if it is a topic I want to discuss). The end result is instead of taking another tiny step forward, I feel confused as the questions turn over in my head.
I am proud of how in the last few months, I have gotten myself back on my feet at home. I am now confident I can provide the an environment to allow Channah to continue to grow and prosper. I also believe Rachel would not have left me to take care of Gabi if she didn't have full faith in me. This trip has taught me to face the fears of my colliding fears and remind me the world is not as big and scary of a place that it appears to be. I love my family. I know that I can take care of it.
Showing posts with label Toronto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toronto. Show all posts
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Toronto Trip -- Sports
The plan is for the next little while to post some of the highlights of our recent trip to Toronto. Fitting in as many sports as possible was an important part of our trip.
It was not practical to bring my hockey equipment with us. I had enough trouble explaining to security at Ben Guerion Airport why I was traveling with my skates and helmet. For the first little while, I borrowed equipment from another goalie when he wasn't using them. When our schedules no longer worked, I borrowed the upper body stuff from a friend who upgraded a few years ago. The lower body equipment, I borrowed from the person who runs the Monday night game. The equipment had been donated a long time ago after someone upgraded their equipment. If the year had been 1983, it would have been state of the art used equipment. One person kept complimenting me on how well I played and that I would be so much better if I had better equipment. Nobody had a stick to spare so my old Monday night game bought one for me to be added to their spare equipment. Thanks Glenn.
I was playing up to 3 games a week. I easily fit back into my regular Monday night game. They have not been able to fill my spot with a regular since I left. I was also able to play a bunch of afternoon games my FIL runs, that I have never been able to play in before. Who has time in the middle of the afternoon to be able to play hockey? I had a great time and made lots of great saves. Goals that I gave up have been easily forgotten. I also spent a lot of time adjusting the borrowed equipment. I stopped a slapshot from a Junior A player which left it's own 'autograph' on my wrist for about 10 days.
I had been looking forward to Halladay's return to Toronto. The game against the Phillies was moved to Philadelphia to make room for the G20 rioting. The Doc ended up pitching on the Friday night so it wasn't that bad. The result was I got to go to two games instead.
I went to Jays/Twins game with my Father and my Uncle. It was a really entertaining game. My Uncle and I paid extra attention to Twins LF Delmon Young who always seemed to be the centre of the action. HR leader Jose Bautista hit an inside the park 2 run homerun when Young was insturmental in taking himself and CF Denard Span out of the play. It was a rare treat to watch. The Jays went on to win 6-5.
The second time, I went with Channah and my Mom to a Sunday afternoon game against the BoSox. The first play was a fly out to LF, which Channah quickly understood that rule. I have never seen anyone cheer so enthusistically for a foul ball. To her it meant the batter had another turn at the plate. She managed to cheer herself out by the 4th inning and my Mom did a great job keeping her entertained the rest of the game. Every once and a while she would turn her attention back to the game. By that point she wasn't sure if a play was good or bad for the team she was cheering for. It was a really fun afternoon. Jays lost 3-2. I don't think Channah has ever been to a sporting event where the home team won. It could be worse, she could be a die hard Cubs fan.
For me one of the highlights was one of the tremendous displays of Achdut that I have ever seen at a baseball game. There were a lot of vocal Red Sox fans in the section next to ours. Every once in a while they would start the cheer "Let's Go Red Sox" At some point it got really embarrasing for a home game and someone would start the response with a " Let's Go Blue Jays" cheer. Around the 6th inning there was a really long back and forth round of cheering that wore down both sides. There was a short pause as fans from both sides stopped to discuss. Then suddenly all at once in perfect unity they started a tremendously loud round of "YANKEES SUCK"
I bought Channah a bright pink Blues Jays Princess hat that has a pink bow that ties in the back. It was perfect for her. I picked up an official batting practise hat for myself. It is a big improvement to what I have been using for tiyuling. I picked up a cute baseball person for Rachel.
Before we made Aliyah I took Channah to the Hockey Hall of Fame. It was really neat because they had just retired my favourite all time player Patrick Roy. Going back was high on her to do list for the trip. We walked in and all she wanted to know was who "the most famous player" was. It was a very different response to last time where her fascination was the giant statue of Ken Dryden, who was "Bubbie's friend" She tried to make my Mom happy by touching "the famous puck" (from the 2010 Olympics). We played two games of bubble hockey which was the one of the main reasons she wanted to go. She thought the Vezina trophy looked like the Beit HaMikdash and no longer recognizes the building featured on the Conn Smyth Trophy. The real lesson of the day was that she will never understand the cultural significance hockey had on myself and Canada as a whole. It is a small price to pay for the better life I am able to offer her here.
It was nice reconnecting with the sports I love. I am going to try to be more proactive in playing hockey this year. It is amazing how little my perception of professional sports has changed since the days where I used to live and breath it. I still follow, just not to the same degree.
It was not practical to bring my hockey equipment with us. I had enough trouble explaining to security at Ben Guerion Airport why I was traveling with my skates and helmet. For the first little while, I borrowed equipment from another goalie when he wasn't using them. When our schedules no longer worked, I borrowed the upper body stuff from a friend who upgraded a few years ago. The lower body equipment, I borrowed from the person who runs the Monday night game. The equipment had been donated a long time ago after someone upgraded their equipment. If the year had been 1983, it would have been state of the art used equipment. One person kept complimenting me on how well I played and that I would be so much better if I had better equipment. Nobody had a stick to spare so my old Monday night game bought one for me to be added to their spare equipment. Thanks Glenn.
I was playing up to 3 games a week. I easily fit back into my regular Monday night game. They have not been able to fill my spot with a regular since I left. I was also able to play a bunch of afternoon games my FIL runs, that I have never been able to play in before. Who has time in the middle of the afternoon to be able to play hockey? I had a great time and made lots of great saves. Goals that I gave up have been easily forgotten. I also spent a lot of time adjusting the borrowed equipment. I stopped a slapshot from a Junior A player which left it's own 'autograph' on my wrist for about 10 days.
I had been looking forward to Halladay's return to Toronto. The game against the Phillies was moved to Philadelphia to make room for the G20 rioting. The Doc ended up pitching on the Friday night so it wasn't that bad. The result was I got to go to two games instead.
I went to Jays/Twins game with my Father and my Uncle. It was a really entertaining game. My Uncle and I paid extra attention to Twins LF Delmon Young who always seemed to be the centre of the action. HR leader Jose Bautista hit an inside the park 2 run homerun when Young was insturmental in taking himself and CF Denard Span out of the play. It was a rare treat to watch. The Jays went on to win 6-5.
The second time, I went with Channah and my Mom to a Sunday afternoon game against the BoSox. The first play was a fly out to LF, which Channah quickly understood that rule. I have never seen anyone cheer so enthusistically for a foul ball. To her it meant the batter had another turn at the plate. She managed to cheer herself out by the 4th inning and my Mom did a great job keeping her entertained the rest of the game. Every once and a while she would turn her attention back to the game. By that point she wasn't sure if a play was good or bad for the team she was cheering for. It was a really fun afternoon. Jays lost 3-2. I don't think Channah has ever been to a sporting event where the home team won. It could be worse, she could be a die hard Cubs fan.
For me one of the highlights was one of the tremendous displays of Achdut that I have ever seen at a baseball game. There were a lot of vocal Red Sox fans in the section next to ours. Every once in a while they would start the cheer "Let's Go Red Sox" At some point it got really embarrasing for a home game and someone would start the response with a " Let's Go Blue Jays" cheer. Around the 6th inning there was a really long back and forth round of cheering that wore down both sides. There was a short pause as fans from both sides stopped to discuss. Then suddenly all at once in perfect unity they started a tremendously loud round of "YANKEES SUCK"
I bought Channah a bright pink Blues Jays Princess hat that has a pink bow that ties in the back. It was perfect for her. I picked up an official batting practise hat for myself. It is a big improvement to what I have been using for tiyuling. I picked up a cute baseball person for Rachel.
Before we made Aliyah I took Channah to the Hockey Hall of Fame. It was really neat because they had just retired my favourite all time player Patrick Roy. Going back was high on her to do list for the trip. We walked in and all she wanted to know was who "the most famous player" was. It was a very different response to last time where her fascination was the giant statue of Ken Dryden, who was "Bubbie's friend" She tried to make my Mom happy by touching "the famous puck" (from the 2010 Olympics). We played two games of bubble hockey which was the one of the main reasons she wanted to go. She thought the Vezina trophy looked like the Beit HaMikdash and no longer recognizes the building featured on the Conn Smyth Trophy. The real lesson of the day was that she will never understand the cultural significance hockey had on myself and Canada as a whole. It is a small price to pay for the better life I am able to offer her here.
It was nice reconnecting with the sports I love. I am going to try to be more proactive in playing hockey this year. It is amazing how little my perception of professional sports has changed since the days where I used to live and breath it. I still follow, just not to the same degree.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Toronto Rally
| Date: | Sunday, January 18, 2009 |
| Time: | 1:00pm - 4:00pm |
| Location: | Dundas Square |
| Street: | Yonge and Dundas |
| City/Town: | Toronto, ON |
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Pro Israel Rally at Beth Tzedek
Yesterday in Toronto there was an Anti-Israel rally that brought out over 2000 Anti-Israel protesters.
On Thursday January 8th from 7:30-9:30 pm there will be a city wide rally in support of Israel at Beth Tzedek. 1700 Bathurst Street between Eglinton and St. Clair.
Please do not use the comments section of this entry to debate what the IDF is doing in Gaza. I live to close for comfort and am doing everything I can to help over here. Please do likewise if you are at all able.
If you know someone here, you are effected.
On Thursday January 8th from 7:30-9:30 pm there will be a city wide rally in support of Israel at Beth Tzedek. 1700 Bathurst Street between Eglinton and St. Clair.
Please do not use the comments section of this entry to debate what the IDF is doing in Gaza. I live to close for comfort and am doing everything I can to help over here. Please do likewise if you are at all able.
If you know someone here, you are effected.
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